An HONEST review of the NEW Royal MDR Menu

[aubreyc1988]

Just got off the Symphony and dined in the MDR every evening at 5:30 Set Dining time. I had a table for two and always ordered all three courses. We had SUCH a great experience with the new MDR menu.

 

Our dinner service was always around 30 minutes from start to finish, but it did help that we knew what we wanted fairly quickly and did not order bar drinks at the table. Our wait staff was amazing, the food was delicious and always HOT.  I feel like the speed of dining is MUCH faster than it was on my previous sailings in Sept/Oct of 2022.

 

On Lobster Night, they are charging for extra lobster (and I think the price for that needs to be lower), but you can order a lobster AND a different main entree that ISN'T lobster.  Our favorite dishes were the lobster, steak, cheese tortellini, butter chicken, warm chocolate chip cookie, and tres leches cake

 

I didn't mind the new formatting of the menu, but the theming was pretty weak, with Indian food being served on Mexican night 😛 Not a huge deal but just an observation

 

Our cruise did have the top level of the MDR reserved for a Celiac group cruise so I do not know how this factored into my positive experience

 

Let me know if you have any questions about the menu! I didn't take any pictures of the menu or food, as there are many online already. 😄 I don't claim to be a foodie or an expert in food, this is my personal opinion. 

[Weluv2cruise2gether]

Thank you for the positive review. Was getting worried with all the negative ones I have read. 😀

[kruzerci]

As before, it definitely varies ship to ship. It was fine on Brilliance but abysmal on Serenade for us. 

[Garmy44]

As a frequent cruiser, I have to totally disagree and in my opinion the new menu is terrible. There are poor selections and bad preparation.  I think Royal is only trying to cut costs and steer guests to speciality dining. 

[aubreyc1988]

6 minutes ago, Garmy44 said:

As a frequent cruiser, I have to totally disagree and in my opinion the new menu is terrible. There are poor selections and bad preparation.  I think Royal is only trying to cut costs and steer guests to speciality dining. 

I never had any experience that aligned with this. Not saying your experience isn't valid, just that mine was different. I ordered some of the same dishes on Liberty, Allure, Freedom last year and didn't notice a difference in taste, quality, or presentation of those dishes on Symphony. On Freedom and Allure, I know several times in the MDR, I waited for 2 hrs for a completed dinner service so I was pleased with my fast experience on Symphony. Of course, we were only two people and larger groups will naturally have a different experience. 

[aubreyc1988]

28 minutes ago, Weluv2cruise2gether said:

Thank you for the positive review. Was getting worried with all the negative ones I have read. 😀

 

Don't be worried, just go into it with an open mind! 😄 I ate at Park Cafe, Sorrentos, Playmakers, Windjammer and found everything to be pretty good. Of course, there were some hits and misses at WJ but that is just personal preference. 

[JeffT237]

3 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

Don't be worried, just go into it with an open mind! 😄

We board the Wonder in a week, and despite all of the negative reviews on most things Royal Caribbean lately we intend to have an enjoyable week.  Glad you had a positive experience!  We dealt with the same thing before our Discovery Princess cruise in October, a lot of negative reviews and we some how had a great week.

[aubreyc1988]

5 minutes ago, JeffT237 said:

We board the Wonder in a week, and despite all of the negative reviews on most things Royal Caribbean lately we intend to have an enjoyable week.  Glad you had a positive experience!  We dealt with the same thing before our Discovery Princess cruise in October, a lot of negative reviews and we some how had a great week.

I always think that if the food ends up being mad, maybe I won't gain so much haha 

[Jasukkie]

I'm flexible on food but is 30 minutes for dinner seen as a good thing? I guess they got a lot of complaints about overly long service. I will miss the days of the fruit and cheese plate and enjoying some wine and letting food settle.

 

Not joking...just package it up and have a pick-up section like Panera. I'd rather eat on my balcony anyway. Can take my sweet time and relax.

[dna1990]

Recently off Allure, ate in MDR every night (late seating).  I would say A- for the most part.  We finished around 70-90 minutes each evening, mostly because of our own pace.  In our immediate section there were many vacant seats, if not vacant whole tables.

 

Service could be weird at times, meaning there seem to be a long walk/prep for each plate.  Meaning, say the ladies received a course....it could be 3-5 minutes before the gentlemen got theirs.  We didn't see any of the "tall trays" being carried anymore to staging areas, where waiters could then sling each person's serving course in a short period.  Not a super big deal, but noticeable with conversation flow.

 

Temperatures were good though.  Cold caesar salads, hot entrees, etc.

 

Bar service was very slim, and no after-dinner "shots".  They made some one night at request - but were just a baileys concoction poured into a champagne glass.  Weird.

 

They were apparently "out of iced tea" for the whole cruise.  But on the first night they attempted to "create" a iced tea in the oddest formula of a weak tea bag, cinnamon, clove, and something else.  Just tell us they are out, instead of trying hard to invent a solution.  It did get better in the week, as I suspect they started small tea bag batches for us in advance.

 

Chicken quality (tough/grissly) was on two different dishes during the week, yuk.  Other dishes seemed usual cruise-line level.  RCCL desserts are not my fav, even the tiramisu was a smaller cup-based version.  OK, but nothing like the old days.

 

Ordering multiple items was no issue, but waiter always lamented that it was RCCL that required him to deliver one at a time.  Personally, I much prefer one at a time - the place setting and table size is awful if everyone gets two appetizers at once.

 

 

We like the MDR for the event and conversation way more than the food itself.  I still would say your MDR experience will be more influenced by the service and atmosphere - over the actual new menu approach.

 

[Thisguylikestocruise]

24 minutes ago, JeffT237 said:

We board the Wonder in a week, and despite all of the negative reviews on most things Royal Caribbean lately we intend to have an enjoyable week.  Glad you had a positive experience!  We dealt with the same thing before our Discovery Princess cruise in October, a lot of negative reviews and we some how had a great week.

We sailed Wonder 3 weeks ago. Best vacation ever. I spent 10 months prior to our cruise reading mostly negative reviews: creaking noises in the rooms, awful food, magnetic bathroom door slamming noise, etc. Got onboard and all of the complaints seemed extremely minor to me, didn’t affect my experience negatively. Main dining room meal was fantastic, both the service, speed, and food. Showed up without reservations and was seated immediately. I’d give Wonder a 9 out of 10 rating, and we actually have another cruise booked for Wonder next year.

[aubreyc1988]

32 minutes ago, Jasukkie said:

I'm flexible on food but is 30 minutes for dinner seen as a good thing? I guess they got a lot of complaints about overly long service. I will miss the days of the fruit and cheese plate and enjoying some wine and letting food settle.

 

Not joking...just package it up and have a pick-up section like Panera. I'd rather eat on my balcony anyway. Can take my sweet time and relax.

You could go more leisurely if you wanted to. We are fast diners, we like to do as many nightly activities as possible. 

[JeffT237]

13 minutes ago, Thisguylikestocruise said:

We sailed Wonder 3 weeks ago. Best vacation ever

I think this is a mind set rather than reality thing, for most passengers, not all.  We go into all of our travel experiences with an open mind, what our expectations and tastes are. Vacations for us are fun and enjoyable, more expensive now and filled with mostly hits and some misses. We don't expect perfection, things happen. We had a disappointing experience last May on the Crown Princess, that experience was thoroughly discussed on CC, but early on we decided we'll make the most of it and deal with the unsatisfactory experience with Princess when we return.  Reviews on CC need to be taken with a grain of salt.  Throw out the extremely high ones and extremely low ones to get a more accurate review of the experience.  

 

 

[edrussell]

We just got off Anthem and for the most part we absolutely agree with your assessment of the new menu.  We did 5 of 7 night in the MDR and enjoyed each and every night.  I personally think that a lot of the uproar is simply because something has changed.  So many on CC appear to want nothing ever to change.  If something was one way it must remain that way forever thus wrath will be unleashed.

 

One thing we definitely noticed was that we were consistently in and out of the MDR within an hour or an hour and 10.  We did My Time at 7:00pm each night and were in different sections and had different wait staff.  We certainly didn't feel rushed in any way, but the pacing was better.  

 

Dishes were consistently hot and for the most part tasty and consistent.  Not every single dish was a winner but we never left hungry nor did we send anything back.  Not sure why so many lose their minds over a bloody lobster tail.  I just don't get it (now that is my own personal opinion, nothing more).  I don't get on a cruise and expect an all you can eat lobster buffet for heavens sakes.  

[c-leg5]

1 hour ago, aubreyc1988 said:

 

 

2 hours ago, Jasukkie said:

I'm flexible on food but is 30 minutes for dinner seen as a good thing? I guess they got a lot of complaints about overly long service. I will miss the days of the fruit and cheese plate and enjoying some wine and letting food settle.

 

Not joking...just package it up and have a pick-up section like Panera. I'd rather eat on my balcony anyway. Can take my sweet time and relax.

 

1 hour ago, aubreyc1988 said:

You could go more leisurely if you wanted to. We are fast diners, we like to do as many nightly activities as possible. 

Good to hear a positive review of dining for a change however 30 minutes wouldn’t be a positive in my book.
 

I haven’t experienced new menus yet but the change in choices aren’t a big deal to me other than the lame excuse for needing to call the menus by a theme. Quality is another matter which obviously I can’t comment on yet. 30 minutes “in and out” wouldn’t be a “dining room” experience for me and I would go to the WJ if I wanted to accomplish that. However if that was what you wanted and what you asked for, all is good.
 

I just hope that isn’t their goal and they are able to read people’s preferences and adapt. If that becomes their aim there is no point in the two set dining times, 3 hours apart. They could go exclusively to MTD and create a more efficient model of turning tables than they are presently achieving.

 

I also miss the days of cheese plate, wine and allowing time for food to settle. I don’t even like ordering desert at the beginning or having more than one course sat on the table at one time unless requested.

[Mum2Mercury]

4 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

Just got off the Symphony and dined in the MDR every evening at 5:30 Set Dining time. I had a table for two and always ordered all three courses. We had SUCH a great experience with the new MDR menu.

That's nice to hear!  I wonder if part of your positive experience was that you were among the first diners of the evening?  

4 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

I feel like the speed of dining is MUCH faster than it was on my previous sailings in Sept/Oct of 2022.

They did say that was one of their goals, though I'm with the ones who don't care to be in-and-out in 30 minutes.  That's more of a lunch time table. 

4 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

On Lobster Night, they are charging for extra lobster (and I think the price for that needs to be lower), but you can order a lobster AND a different main entree that ISN'T lobster.  Our favorite dishes were the lobster, steak, cheese tortellini, butter chicken, warm chocolate chip cookie, and tres leches cake

Were you able to order a lobster tail AND another entree /have them delivered at the same time?  

 

I like hearing the dishes people enjoyed most -- everything can't be a hit.  

3 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

... but that is just personal preference. 

When you're talking about food, personal preference always comes into play!  

2 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

... Reviews on CC need to be taken with a grain of salt.  Throw out the extremely high ones and extremely low ones to get a more accurate review of the experience.  

Agree, and I'll add this:  I take more seriously reviews that give plenty of details -- not the ones that just say, "Awful, everything was awful!" or "Best ever!"  If a person gives you details, he or she has thought through and evaluated carefully.  

Edited February 26, 2023 by Mum2Mercury

[nelblu]

3 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

Just got off the Symphony and dined in the MDR every evening at 5:30 Set Dining time. I had a table for two and always ordered all three courses. We had SUCH a great experience with the new MDR menu.

 

Our dinner service was always around 30 minutes from start to finish, but it did help that we knew what we wanted fairly quickly and did not order bar drinks at the table. Our wait staff was amazing, the food was delicious and always HOT.  I feel like the speed of dining is MUCH faster than it was on my previous sailings in Sept/Oct of 2022.

 

On Lobster Night, they are charging for extra lobster (and I think the price for that needs to be lower), but you can order a lobster AND a different main entree that ISN'T lobster.  Our favorite dishes were the lobster, steak, cheese tortellini, butter chicken, warm chocolate chip cookie, and tres leches cake

 

I didn't mind the new formatting of the menu, but the theming was pretty weak, with Indian food being served on Mexican night 😛 Not a huge deal but just an observation

 

Our cruise did have the top level of the MDR reserved for a Celiac group cruise so I do not know how this factored into my positive experience

 

Let me know if you have any questions about the menu! I didn't take any pictures of the menu or food, as there are many online already. 😄 I don't claim to be a foodie or an expert in food, this is my personal opinion. 

Glad you had a good experience.  My recent sail on Anthem in February was so so.  The first 2 night the service was ever so slow.  I was seated at a table with 4 other solos, and some told the headwaiter that if the slowness continued they would rather dine in the WJ.  The headwaiter concerned promised better service going forward and he delivered.  Don't know whether it was the kitchen or staff that was the problem in the beginning.

 

Mine was an 8 niter and there were 3 theme nights that they can do a lot of improvements.  These are British, Italian and Mexican nights.  Appetizers just did not fit the themes.  2 specific dishes that I was so disappointed was Carne Asada (Mex.) and the Caribbean Jerk rub pork chops.  My previous experience with the pork chops, which I love, were dry and quite chewy.  Our waiter told us to stay away from the pork chops even though it was a recommendation of the chef.🤣 I guess no improvements either in the cut of the meat or preparations.

 

However, the Anthem WJ was very good for breakfast and lunch.  The set up of stations are much better than Oasis and Allure.  For breakfast they have multiple fresh to make Omelets/egg stations and one can see the waffles and pancakes being made.  When I ordered the omelet, they provide you with a gizmo (as in restaurants) that tells you that the omelet and or eggs is ready to be picked up.  No bananas for the first 3 days, but saw green figs at the fruit stations.  I love figs.

 

For lunch, on any given day, they have multiple made to order pasta stations and a new to my attention a stir fry station(s).  Quite popular, I may add.  One day, for lunch they had an entree called "Italian chicken beef steak."  Being Italian, never heard of such as specialty.😜  But it tasted moist and pretty good.

 

I had a craving for tuna salad but could not get it at the WJ.  They had seafood, chicken, egg spreads, but the preparation left a lot to be desired.  Verry liquidity and not appetizing.  Decided to try 2x70 cafe (Park Cafe) and they had on their blackboard tuna salad wrap. Ordered it, and to my surprise they handed me a plate with a bit over an inch length wrap.😊  I did not ask for finger sandwiches.  The person seeing not so happy face, offered me 2 additional wraps.  Got to say, the tuna wraps tasted pretty good.

 

Again, I will never starve, but sometimes there a bit of disappointment on the quality and preparations of dishes.  Is it the quality of the ingredients or the chefs.

 

 

 

[Harrisonkid]

We too did the new menus.  Most nights there is an easy meal to chose from. Though I liked the old menu better we can live with the new offerings. On the night or two that the main entry's were not appealing we loaded up with multiple Apps  and Deserts  😉

[aubreyc1988]

29 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

That's nice to hear!  I wonder if part of your positive experience was that you were among the first diners of the evening?  

They did say that was one of their goals, though I'm with the ones who don't care to be in-and-out in 30 minutes.  That's more of a lunch time table. 

Were you able to order a lobster tail AND another entree /have them delivered at the same time?  

 

I like hearing the dishes people enjoyed most -- everything can't be a hit.  

When you're talking about food, personal preference always comes into play!  

Agree, and I'll add this:  I take more seriously reviews that give plenty of details -- not the ones that just say, "Awful, everything was awful!" or "Best ever!"  If a person gives you details, he or she has thought through and evaluated carefully.  

I didn't get them at the same time, but the waiter did ask me how I would like them. I did say "Once I finish the lobster" and about 5 minutes after they took the lobster plates away, they brought the tortelleni

[aubreyc1988]

5 minutes ago, Harrisonkid said:

We too did the new menus.  Most nights there is an easy meal to chose from. Though I liked the old menu better we can live with the new offerings. On the night or two that the main entry's were not appealing we loaded up with multiple Apps  and Deserts  😉

I think a lot of people do not realize how hard it is to prepare food for so many people, and certainly it isn't possible to please everyone, but I was quite satisfied with my experience. I also think if you have an honest and kind conversation with your wait staff on the first night about the kind of dining experience you want, that can go a long way in making or breaking the experience. Our waiter knew we wanted to have faster dining times to get to the earlier shows, and I am sure if we would have asked for a longer service, he would have accommodated us. 

[Ozark_Kid]

@aubreyc1988 Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.  Glad it was good for you.

Since the start up we have had service issues in the MDR at times but last month on Allure was not bad.  And the food was good too.  I think things are actually getting better.  Probably our slowest experience was last May on Ovation. It was mostly due to inexperienced staff.  We will see if it has approved this May. 

If the food experience is as bad as some say then why are so many rebooking. 

[BirdTravels]

9 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

Let me know if you have any questions about the menu! I didn't take any pictures of the menu or food, as there are many online already. 😄 I don't claim to be a foodie or an expert in food, this is my personal opinion. 

Thank you for your honest review. Most people resist change. "If I can't get my chicken fingers, Royal is cutting corners". 

 

"The Birds" are cheerleaders for the evolution of the cruise industry to meet the needs and desires of the contemporary cruiser (even though we are pretty old, retired birds). We have been cruising for a long time and would never, ever want it go back to the old days. We spend almost every evening meal in the MDR,,, but have not cruised since the change. Your positive outlook makes us anxious to try it out. 

 

Thank you!

[Straughn]

I only ate in the MDR twice  on Jewel last week. My impression of what I ate was somewhere between Denny’s and Olive Garden. Conversations with other passengers produced complaints similar to mine. Some examples: Creme Brûlée was the consistency of soup, the lobster tail , after removed from the shell, was about 2 inches long, food was either bland or overly salted, portion size was not consistent- two people could order the same item and one got a significantly larger portion than the other one. 
 

I had two excellent meals in Izumi, one excellent and one good dinner  in Giovanni’s, one not so good dinner in Chops, one excellent dinner in Chops, and two decent lunches in Chops. 
 

Mornings in the buffet had the usual fare-eggs, bacon, sausage, English breakfast, omelet bar. I found the pastries at breakfast to be dry and the cakes at lunch to be tasteless. The salad bar was good for the first four days. They must have run out of the mixed lettuce as the last few days only chopped iceberg available.
 

Some of this is picky, but these are the things I judge by and I wasn’t impressed. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Straughn

[CntPAcruiser]

5 hours ago, nelblu said:

... No bananas for the first 3 days, but saw green figs at the fruit stations.  I love figs.

 

For lunch, on any given day, they have multiple made to order pasta stations and a new to my attention a stir fry station(s).  Quite popular, I may add.  One day, for lunch they had an entree called "Italian chicken beef steak."  Being Italian, never heard of such as specialty.😜  But it tasted moist and pretty good.

 

I had a craving for tuna salad but could not get it at the WJ.  They had seafood, chicken, egg spreads, but the preparation left a lot to be desired.  Verry liquidity and not appetizing.  Decided to try 2x70 cafe (Park Cafe) and they had on their blackboard tuna salad wrap. Ordered it, and to my surprise they handed me a plate with a bit over an inch length wrap.😊  I did not ask for finger sandwiches.  The person seeing not so happy face, offered me 2 additional wraps.  Got to say, the tuna wraps tasted pretty good.

 

Again, I will never starve, but sometimes there a bit of disappointment on the quality and preparations of dishes.  Is it the quality of the ingredients or the chefs.

 

 

 

They had fresh figs? Lovely. I'm used to seeing poached figs in syrup at breakfast in the WJ, but I've never seen fresh figs on board.

 

As for the "Italian chicken beef steak," I can only wonder. Translation error? It reminds me of an old menu item from the MDR dinner menu, "Sweet and sour vegetarian chicken chunks." We were never sure if the chunks were vegetarian or the chicken.

[TinkBellaMom]

9 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

I think this is a mind set rather than reality thing, for most passengers, not all.  We go into all of our travel experiences with an open mind, what our expectations and tastes are. Vacations for us are fun and enjoyable, more expensive now and filled with mostly hits and some misses. We don't expect perfection, things happen. We had a disappointing experience last May on the Crown Princess, that experience was thoroughly discussed on CC, but early on we decided we'll make the most of it and deal with the unsatisfactory experience with Princess when we return.  Reviews on CC need to be taken with a grain of salt.  Throw out the extremely high ones and extremely low ones to get a more accurate review of the experience.  

 

 

I also think a change in the menu is a good thing.  I think what folks are missing here is not so much that the food is horrible, but the quality has really sunk low.  We honestly never had a hot meal, they are pre-plating food and allowing it to sit too long.  I had my own catering business, I know about plating.  Garnishes only, then add everything and serve.  Sauces congeal, meats gets tough as they cool.  I’m hoping they can pull it together.  Speedy isn’t important to us, we like to slow down on vacation.